Tweets from the pope

By Josh Perlman

The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Benedict XVI has created an official twitter account.

The 85-year-old leader of the Catholic Church will begin posting tweets next week, which will feature mostly content from the pope’s speeches, homilies on major holidays and reactions to world events, the New York Times reported.

I obviously went online and began following the pope – or @pontifix, should I say – as soon as I heard the news. I was immediately impressed by the profile’s cheery yellow background emblazoned with the pope’s signature, the beautiful cover photo of Vatican City and the welcoming headshot of Benedict himself waving to his followers. It’s clear the Vatican is taking this Twitter account pretty seriously.

Personally, I’m experiencing some mixed emotions. Though I understand that the media plays a crucial role in almost every aspect of modern society, I can’t help but find it strange that I will soon see this religious icon’s face mixed into my Twitter feed along with The Onion and that annoying girl from high school who tweets about her socks.

A strong social media presence allows those in the public eye to better connect with the general public, so for the pope to create a Twitter account seems like a logical decision in theory. In practice, though, it feels like an inappropriate use of the religious leader’s time. Maybe it’s because I’m just not used to the idea, or maybe it’s because I’m Jewish. I just can’t help but laugh at the idea of reading tweets that end with the hashtag “#askpontifex.” Yes, if you want to communicate directly with the pope, make sure to make room for those 12 characters.

The Vatican made it clear that the pope will not be following anyone else on Twitter and will not be retweeting anyone’s posts… “for now.”

As undeniably awesome as it would be to have one of my tweets favorited by the pope, I hope for his sake that whoever runs his Twitter account continues to stick to this “be followed, don’t follow” policy. It’s already strange enough for the pope to be tweeting; I think it’s reasonable to say they should try to keep the account as professional as possible.

I will admit I’m anxious to see what the pope’s tweets are like. Who knows – maybe they’ll be insightful enough to knock me off this high horse I find myself riding. Let’s just hope the pope doesn’t get a Pinterest account.